Parade of the Robots

When
grinding metal parts that are used in assembly line manufacturing in
the automotive industry, companies must use automation, given the
stringent design, dimensional and quality requirements of the OEMs.
The grinding of metal parts in a precise, reproducible manner
involves more than simply grinding.

The
Grinding metal parts made of a variety of materials – such as
steel, stainless steel, aluminum, copper, magnesium and the like –
is a science unto itself. Bathroom and kitchen fixtures are a good
example. They are smooth to the touch, easy on the eye and completely
free of sharp edges or burrs. This special look and feel requires
quite a bit of technological effort. In addition to being machined,
the blanks need to have casting flash removed and their surface
rendered smooth, all of which requires quite a large amount of
grinding and polishing.

Nobody
knows this better than Kyriakos Venetis, who was one of the first
so-called “guest workers” to come to Germany from Greece looking
for work in the early 1960’s. Today, at the age of 75, this
successful self-made man heads a group of four small companies
focusing mostly on grinding and polishing, abrasive blasting,
machining and surface treatment of all kinds of metal parts. Among
these firms, the largest operation is the
metal-grinding manufactor Metallschleiferei Kyriakos Venetis in the
Southwest-German town of Leutenbach-Nellmersbach, which employs the
majority of its 60 some people. And this is how it all started: As
early as 1967, Venetis recognized an opportunity to start out on his
own with metal grinding, and made the best of it. From the initial
two employees, the company grew by leaps and bounds, requiring—after
several moves to ever-larger premises—the construction of large
factory in 1986. Venetis’ operation continued to flourish since he
had made a name for himself as a top-notch service provider in the
metal grinding and polishing industry, finishing as many as 1.8
million exterior rear view mirror frames annually during boom times.

His
customers in the automotive industry and their suppliers, as well as
other renowned manufacturers from other industries, have remained his
loyal clients to this day. This is especially true since Kyriakos
Venetis and his son Dimitrios and daughter Dimitra, both of whom are
active in the company, have always been very receptive to new
technologies. Summarizing the past years, Kyriakos Venetis says,
“Over time, we have gained such a great experience and expertise in
metal grinding and polishing it assists us greatly in our day-to-day
work. When customers approach us with a challenge, we solve it by
performing tests, building fixtures, developing fabrication
strategies, and ultimately, delivering the completely machined,
finished parts. While this still requires a lot of detail knowledge
and manual work, we would not be able to do any of this anymore
without the extensive use of automation, i.e. robotic equipment. Our customers
insist on precisely reproducible dimensional grinding and polishing
quality at competitive prices, and the only way to comply with their
expectations is to use robotic systems.” The automotive industry
continuously raised the bar, which is why Venetis started adopting
robotic technology for his grinding and polishing processes in 1994.
To this day, he has been working with SHL Automatisierungstechnik AG,
a company that specializes in robots that grind and polish. At his
original factory in Leutenbach-Nellmersbach, Venetis has nine robotic
grinding and polishing systems, plus 17 manual grinding and polishing
work stations, and at the factory in nearby Gingen an der Fils, there
is another robotic grinding and polishing system. They are usually
operated in two or three shifts, and for certain products, as many as
2,500 JIT-produced or completely ground and polished sets – out of
a 20,000 production Lot – can leave the factory per day. Says
Dieter Philipp, long-term employee and Technical Plant Manager, “We
are living and breathing just the right combination of grinding and
robotic technology expertise and experience. This combination allows
us to maintain and guarantee superior quality, based on a high level
of process reliability in our grinding and polishing processes. To
achieve this, we have to leverage robotic performance and
capabilities to the max, which is why we need a strong, versatile and
competent technology, supply and service partner.”

It
became apparent in the summer of 2007 how well Kyriakos Venetis and
SHL Automatisierungstechnik AG have cooperated to be successful. A
huge fire wreaked catastrophic damage on buildings and the grinding
and polishing systems. Support from many maintain
operations at a level that enabled the company to fulfill all of its
supply obligations while, at the same time, starting on the project
to rebuild. For SHL Automatisierungstechnik, this resulted in a
major, incremental order for nine robotic grinding and polishing
systems whose delivery and installation was spread over a period of
time. In total, Venetis ordered several industrial robots by various
OEMs from SHL with load capacities ranging from 16 to 60 kg and in
different configurations. In addition, SHL provided custom-made robot
bases, as well as 13 FKS 250/450-S Aluminum abrasive band grinders
from SHL (protected and enclosed units with TÜV certificates), as
well as five additional grinding emulsion tanks.

As
Dimitra Venetis explains, “SHL really provided us with a lot of
support in that situation. For example, we were able to get the 60 kg
robotic system straight from SHL’s demonstration and training
center. In addition, SHL not only provided all the system components,
but it also sent an assembly technician so that we were able to start
installing, integrating, and commissioning full production on-site
and under our control. At the same time, one of our employees was
being trained at SHL in Böttingen to independently operate and
service the robotic systems at our plant. With the exception of one
customer, we have maintained our customer base, and we have been able
to increase our production capacity further due to the two additional
robotic grinding and polishing systems we installed.”

Finally,
it should also be noted that the small, but competent, Venetis Group
emerged stronger from this ordeal. It can now provide complete
finishing services for other metal parts, such as motorcycle
components, stove doors, injection-molding barrels, precision tools,
chucks, and ornamental items—thus broadening its customer range and
reducing the group’s dependence on the automotive industry. The
ability of the company to grow is a result of its uncompromising
focus on robot-supported grinding and polishing, because the SHL
systems can effortlessly and quickly be converted to handle new
grinding and polishing jobs, making them very flexible and versatile.
Expert grinding and polishing know-how meets multi-functional
robotics and SHL grinding and polishing cells—creating a success
story for Venetis and allowing it to continue for years to come.